Bookanista Thursday: LIKE MANDARIN

It's been a little while since I've done a Bookanista post, but that's what happens when you're all of a sudden doing promo for one book, revising another, and drafting a third.  Holy cow, I've been busy!  But luckily I had a chance a few weeks back to go to Kirsten Hubbard's LIKE MANDARIN launch, where I got my very own signed copy, and until I finished it, most everything else fell by the wayside because it is that gorgeous. 

From Goodreads:

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

My Review:

There are some books I read and enjoy.  Others I read and adore.  And then, there are some I wish I'd written because they are so achingly beautiful.  LIKE MANDARIN is one of those ones. 

From the very first sentence: "The winds in Washokey make people go crazy," to the moment I reluctantly closed the book, I was captivated by Hubbard's writing.  The wildwinds whistle through the pages, and poignant emotions tumble through the space between the words.  Her prose sings.

And characters dance.

Grace, with all of her quirkiness and insecurity, is so tenderly written that you can't help but be there with her, yearning to break of her small town and be something different.

Someone like Mandarin.

And Mandarin. She's one of those almost mythic characters, so big and bold you can't help but be taken with her. But she's troubled too.  Vulnerable.  Scared.

The beauty of this book lies in the fact that every bit of it is gorgeously rendered: the stark beauty of the badlands, the sensuous draw of Mandarin, and Grace's intense, tenuous relationship with her.  Hubbard captures the hugeness of the land and wind as expertly as she does the complicated nature of friendship and admiration between girls.  And what you get when you finish is a story that stays with you long after you've read its last lines.

If you've yet to read this gem, go get it.  You'll wish you'd written it.

And while you're at it, check out what the other Bookanistas are up to this week:

• Beth Revis features Between Shades of Gray all week--with giveaway!
• Christine Fonseca gives a Guestanista video review of 11 Birthdays
• Jamie Harrington is giddy for Texas Gothic
• Myra McEntire introduces "Bookanistas Give Back" - with prizes!
• Sarah Frances Hardy delights in Divergent
•  
• Megan Miranda gushes over Blood Magic
• Bethany Wiggins Praises the Princess of the Midnight Ball
• Gretchen McNeil sings about Spoiled
• Carrie Harris loves The Lipstick Laws--with giveaway!
• Rosemary Clement-Moore is ensnared by The Demon Trapper's Daughter
• Veronica Rossi marvels at Moonglass
• Stasia Ward Kehoe raves about Rival

And last but not least, if you haven't yet entered the Week 1 Moonglass Inspiration Giveaway yet, scroll on down and enter! Deadline is Friday at noon, winners will be announced Monday!

  



I Would Have Given Anything To Be Like...

In Like Mandarin, 14-year-old Grace Carpenter would give anything to be like Mandarin Ramey. Mandarin is 17, wild, and a force almost as strong as the Washokey wildwinds.



From Grace: Sure, maybe most of the attention Mandarin got was negative. But it wasn't the kind of disdainful brainfreak attention I got, when I got any at all. Hers was lust. And jealousy. Because even as they condemned her, every single girl wanted to be her.
But nobody more than me.
I want to be beautiful like you, I thought, as if Mandarin were listening.
I want apricot skin and Pocahontas hair and eyes the color of tea. I want to be confident and detached and effortlessly sensual, and if promiscuity is part of the package, I will gladly follow your lead. All I know is I'm so tired of being inside my body.
I would give anything to be like Mandarin.


In honor of LIKE MANDARIN'S release, Kirsten Hubbard has been inviting people to blog about who their Mandarin was, or is, for that matter.



any one of my friends, all for small, different reasons.  I've always heard it said that we're drawn to the people who exhibit the traits we admire and wish we had.  For me, those people are my friends.  My best friends in high school were a mix of the things I wanted to be.  Where I was on the shy side, soft-spoken and a little unsure, they were witty and self-assured, brash and a touch wild.

And now, some of my friends have changed along the way, but the things I'm drawn to are the same. The people I'm closest to and admire most now are still witty and self-assured, still a little wild, and still say things I wish I had the guts to say and wear things I'd give anything to be able to pull off.  They inspire me to cultivate those qualities in myself.  They also make me feel good about who I am, just as I am.  I don't think any of us ever grow out of the desire to be a little more or a little different, but the beautiful thing is, if we surround ourselves with the right people, we don't have to.